Passive investing in an index fund is a good way to ensure your own returns roughly match the overall market. When you buy individual stocks, you can make higher profits, but you also face the risk of under-performance. For example, the Royal VolkerWessels nv (AMS:KVW) share price is down 14% in the last year. That's disappointing when you consider the market returned 8.0%. Royal VolkerWessels may have better days ahead, of course; we've only looked at a one year period. On top of that, the share price has dropped a further 13% in a month. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.
View our latest analysis for Royal VolkerWessels
To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.
During the unfortunate twelve months during which the Royal VolkerWessels share price fell, it actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 27%. Of course, the situation might betray previous over-optimism about growth. It's surprising to see the share price fall so much, despite the improved EPS. So it's well worth checking out some other metrics, too.
We don't see any weakness in the Royal VolkerWessels's dividend so the steady payout can't really explain the share price drop. From what we can see, revenue is pretty flat, so that doesn't really explain the share price drop. Unless, of course, the market was expecting a revenue uptick.
The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
We know that Royal VolkerWessels has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts
What About Dividends?
It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Royal VolkerWessels, it has a TSR of -8.6% for the last year. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!